60 Day Notice

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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2023 / Notices

posted on the internet, without
redaction. DOL encourages commenters
not to include personally identifiable
information, confidential business data,
or other sensitive statements/
information in any comments.
DOL is particularly interested in
comments that:
• Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the Agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility;
• Evaluate the accuracy of the
Agency’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
• Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and
• Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology,
(e.g., permitting electronic submission
of responses).
Agency: DOL–ETA.
Type of Review: Extension without
Changes.
Title of Collection: Quarterly
Narrative Progress Report, Employment
and Training Supplemental Budget
Request Activities.
Form: ETA 9178.
OMB Control Number: 1205–0517.
Affected Public: State Workforce
Agencies.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
57.
Frequency: Quarterly.
Total Estimated Annual Responses:
228.
Estimated Average Time per
Response: 5 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 1,140 hours.
Total Estimated Annual Other Cost
Burden: $0.
Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
Brent Parton,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2023–22500 Filed 10–11–23; 8:45 am]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[SEC File No. 270–472, OMB Control No.
3235–0531]

Proposed Collection; Comment
Request; Extension: Rule 0–1
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services,
100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549–2736
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 350l et seq.), the Securities
and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) plans to submit to the
Office of Management and Budget a
request for extension of the previous
approved collection of information
discussed below.
The Investment Company Act of 1940
(the ‘‘Act’’) 1 establishes a
comprehensive framework for regulating
the organization and operation of
investment companies (‘‘funds’’). A
principal objective of the Act is to
protect fund investors by addressing the
conflicts of interest that exist between
funds and their investment advisers and
other affiliated persons. The Act places
significant responsibility on the fund
board of directors in overseeing the
operations of the fund and policing the
relevant conflicts of interest.2 Rule 0–1
(17 CFR 270.0–1), as amended, provides
definitions for the terms used by the
Commission in the rules and regulations
it has adopted pursuant to the Act. The
rule also contains a number of rules of
construction for terms that are defined
either in the Act itself or elsewhere in
the Commission’s rules and regulations.
Finally, rule 0–1 defines terms that
serve as conditions to the availability of
certain of the Commission’s exemptive
rules. More specifically, the term
‘‘independent legal counsel,’’ as defined
in rule 0–1, sets out conditions that
funds must meet in order to rely on any
of ten exemptive rules (‘‘exemptive
rules’’) under the Act.3
If the board’s counsel has represented
the fund’s investment adviser, principal
underwriter, administrator (collectively,
‘‘management organizations’’) or their
1 15

U.S.C. 80a.
example, fund directors must approve
investment advisory and distribution contracts. See
15 U.S.C. 80a–15(a), (b), and (c).
3 The relevant exemptive rules are: rule 10f–3 (17
CFR 270.10f–3), rule 12b–1 (17 CFR 270.12b–1),
rule 15a–4(b)(2) (17 CFR 270.15a–4(b)(2)), rule 17a–
7 (17 CFR 270.17a–7), rule 17a–8 (17 CFR 270.17a–
8), rule 17d–1(d)(7) (17 CFR 270.17d–1(d)(7)), rule
17e–1(c) (17 CFR 270.17e–1(c)), rule 17g–1 (17 CFR
270.17g–1), rule 18f–3 (17 CFR 270.18f–3), and rule
23c–3 (17 CFR 270.23c–3).
2 For

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‘‘control persons’’ 4 during the past two
years, rule 0–1 requires that the board’s
independent directors make a
determination about the adequacy of the
counsel’s independence. A majority of
the board’s independent directors are
required to reasonably determine, in the
exercise of their judgment, that the
counsel’s prior or current representation
of the management organizations or
their control persons was sufficiently
limited to conclude that it is unlikely to
adversely affect the counsel’s
professional judgment and legal
representation. Rule 0–1 also requires
that a record for the basis of this
determination is made in the minutes of
the directors’ meeting. In addition, the
independent directors must have
obtained an undertaking from the
counsel to provide them with the
information necessary to make their
determination and to update promptly
that information when the person begins
to represent a management organization
or control person, or when he or she
materially increases his or her
representation. Generally, the
independent directors must re-evaluate
their determination no less frequently
than annually.
Any fund that relies on one of the
exemptive rules must comply with the
requirements in the definition of
‘‘independent legal counsel’’ under rule
0–1. We assume that approximately
2,909 funds rely on at least one of the
exemptive rules annually.5 We further
assume that the independent directors
of approximately one-third (970) of
those funds would need to make the
required determination in order for their
counsel to meet the definition of
independent legal counsel.6 We
estimate that each of these 970 funds
would be required to spend, on average,
0.75 hours annually to comply with the
recordkeeping requirement associated
with this determination, for a total
annual burden of approximately 727.5
hours. Based on this estimate, the total
annual cost for all funds’ compliance
4 A ‘‘control person’’ is any person—other than a
fund—directly or indirectly controlling, controlled
by, or under common control, with any of the
fund’s management organizations. See 17 CFR
270.01(a)(6)(iv)(B).
5 Based on statistics compiled by Commission
staff, we estimate that there are approximately 3,232
funds that could rely on one or more of the
exemptive rules. Of those funds, we assume that
approximately 90 percent (2,909) actually rely on at
least one exemptive rules annually.
6 We assume that the independent directors of the
remaining two-thirds of those funds will choose not
to have counsel, or will rely on counsel who has
not recently represented the fund’s management
organizations or control persons. In both
circumstances, it would not be necessary for the
fund’s independent directors to make a
determination about their counsel’s independence.

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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2023 / Notices
with this rule is approximately
$194,485. To calculate this total annual
cost, the Commission staff assumed that
approximately two-thirds of the total
annual hour burden (485 hours) would
be incurred by a compliance manager
with an average hourly wage rate of
$360 per hour,7 and one-third of the
annual hour burden (242.5 hours)
would be incurred by compliance clerk
with an average hourly wage rate of $82
per hour.8
The estimates of average burden hours
are made solely for the purposes of the
Paperwork Reduction Act. These
estimates are not derived from a
comprehensive or even a representative
survey or study of the costs of
Commission rules.
Written comments are invited on: (a)
whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Commission, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the Commission’s
estimate of the burden of the collection
of information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected; and (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information
technology. Consideration will be given
to comments and suggestions submitted
by December 11, 2023.
An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
under the PRA unless it displays a
currently valid OMB control number.
Please direct your written comments
to: David Bottom, Acting Director/Chief
Information Officer, Securities and
Exchange Commission, c/o John
Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington,
DC 20549 or send an email to: PRA_
[email protected].
Dated: October 6, 2023.
J. Lynn Taylor,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023–22580 Filed 10–11–23; 8:45 am]

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7 The estimated hourly wages used in this PRA
analysis were derived from the Securities Industry
and Financial Markets Association’s Reports on
Management and Professional Earnings in the
Securities Industry (2013) (modified to account for
an 1,800-hour work year and multiplied by 5.35 to
account for bonuses, firm size, employee benefits
and overhead) (adjusted for inflation), and Office
Salaries in the Securities Industry (2013) (modified
to account for an 1,800-hour work year and
multiplied by 2.93 to account for bonuses, firm size,
employee benefits and overhead) (adjusted for
inflation).
8 (485 × $360/hour) + (242.5 × $82/hour) =
$194,485.

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[SEC File No. 270–316, OMB Control No.
3235–0359]

Proposed Collection; Comment
Request; Extension: Form N–17f–1
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services,
100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549–2736
Notice is hereby given that pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities
and Exchange Commission (the
‘‘Commission’’) is soliciting comments
on the collections of information
summarized below. The Commission
plans to submit this existing collection
of information to the Office of
Management and Budget for extension
and approval.
Form N–17f–1 (17 CFR 274.219) is
entitled ‘‘Certificate of Accounting of
Securities and Similar Investments of a
Management Investment Company in
the Custody of Members of National
Securities Exchanges.’’ The form serves
as a cover sheet to the accountant’s
certificate that is required to be filed
periodically with the Commission
pursuant to rule 17f–1 (17 CFR 270.17f–
1) under the Act, entitled ‘‘Custody of
Securities with Members of National
Securities Exchanges,’’ which sets forth
the conditions under which a fund may
place its assets in the custody of a
member of a national securities
exchange. Rule 17f–1 requires, among
other things, that an independent public
accountant verify the fund’s assets at the
end of every annual and semi-annual
fiscal period, and at least one other time
during the fiscal year as chosen by the
independent accountant. Requiring an
independent accountant to examine the
fund’s assets in the custody of a member
of a national securities exchange assists
Commission staff in its inspection
program and helps to ensure that the
fund assets are subject to proper
auditing procedures. The accountant’s
certificate stating that it has made an
examination, and describing the nature
and the extent of the examination, must
be attached to Form N–17f–1 and filed
with the Commission promptly after
each examination. The form facilitates
the filing of the accountant’s certificates,
and increases the accessibility of the
certificates to both Commission staff
and interested investors.
Commission staff estimates that it
takes: (i) 1 hour of clerical time to
prepare and file Form N–17f–1; and (ii)
0.5 hour for the fund’s chief compliance

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officer to review Form N–17f–1 prior to
filing with the Commission, for a total
of 1.5 hours. Each fund is required to
make 3 filings annually, for a total
annual burden per fund of
approximately 4.5 hours.1 Commission
staff estimates that an average of 21
funds currently file Form N–17f–1 with
the Commission 3 times each year, for
a total of 64 responses annually.2 The
total annual hour burden for Form N–
17f–1 is therefore estimated to be
approximately 95 hours.3
The estimate of average burden hours
is made solely for the purposes of the
Paperwork Reduction Act, and is not
derived from a comprehensive or even
a representative survey or study of the
costs of Commission rules. Compliance
with the collections of information
required by Form N–17f–1 is mandatory
for funds that place their assets in the
custody of a national securities
exchange member. Responses will not
be kept confidential. An agency may not
conduct or sponsor, and a person is not
required to respond to a collection of
information unless it displays a
currently valid control number.
Written comments are invited on: (a)
whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Commission, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the Commission’s
estimate of the burden of the collection
of information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected; and (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information
technology. Consideration will be given
to comments and suggestions submitted
by December 11, 2023.
An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
under the PRA unless it displays a
currently valid OMB control number.
Please direct your written comments
to: David Bottom, Acting Director/Chief
Information Officer, Securities and
Exchange Commission, c/o John
Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington,
DC 20549 or send an email to: PRA_
[email protected].
1 This estimate is based on the following
calculation: (1.5 hours × 3 responses annually = 4.5
hours).
2 This estimate is based on a review of Form N–
17f–1 filings made with the Commission over the
last three years.
3 This estimate is based on the following
calculations: (4.5 hours × 21 funds = 94.5 total
hours).

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